Cool! A thread was created after all. Well now that I am here, let me share my thoughts on that game.

I would have been elimanted for sure if I had tried to hold onto my spoils to get the most for my trade. I don't know if anyone else had a set of spoils but if they did and they had traded them in when they had the chance to do so, the game would have been very different.

If I had not traded in when I did upon the advice of the instructor (because I was one of the weakest on the map) I would have been just another domino with four spoils and that game would have been over then. In one play. So I now believe that when the spoils trade get to like 30 troops or even perhaps 20 troops, I am just going to trade in ready or not. It might give more troops to the next guy but at least I will have mine.

I've experimented using a few different approaches, sometimes holding onto my cards in the hopes that I can still pull out a win, and other times cashing when the value gets up into the 20+ range. Overall, late in the game, I believe it's better to have troops on the board. Too many times, a player will go for an elimination and come up just short (a hanging), and if you're appropriately positioned, you can take advantage of that. The fewer spoils you have, the less of a target you are, and the greater the opportunity you have to make a move at the end.

It's like the stock market analogy you've brought up before - cards represent stocks, troops on the board represent ready cash in hand. Those stocks can potentially reap great profits for you, but you can lose them quickly. It's much harder to lose the troops on the board, and often a player with the right troops in position can snatch up those cards, just as someone with ready cash can make a killing by buying when the market is low.

macbone wrote:I've experimented using a few different approaches, sometimes holding onto my cards in the hopes that I can still pull out a win, and other times cashing when the value gets up into the 20+ range. Overall, late in the game, I believe it's better to have troops on the board. Too many times, a player will go for an elimination and come up just short (a hanging), and if you're appropriately positioned, you can take advantage of that. The fewer spoils you have, the less of a target you are, and the greater the opportunity you have to make a move at the end.

It's like the stock market analogy you've brought up before - cards represent stocks, troops on the board represent ready cash in hand. Those stocks can potentially reap great profits for you, but you can lose them quickly. It's much harder to lose the troops on the board, and often a player with the right troops in position can snatch up those cards, just as someone with ready cash can make a killing by buying when the market is low.

Good answer Macbone!

And a good anology that complemeted the Stocks and Bonds. The troops on the board are like ready cash in hand that is yours. It's like that old saying, "A Bird in the hand is worth two in the bush."